Mission and Vision
The Office of Evaluation, Research, and Accountability (ERA) seeks to continuously improve Philadelphia’s schools by encouraging the use of evidence in day-to-day planning and decision-making. ERA strives to inspire school leaders to enact change within their schools and communities through the use of understandable, clear, and actionable data. Across offices, our primary focus is to design, encourage, and uphold evidence-based practices that can be used by the School District and City of Philadelphia to generate the theory and knowledge necessary to improve programs and services for students and families. It is our mission to ensure that District data from ERA offices are accurate, meaningful, user-friendly, and practice-oriented.
As part of our mission, we:
- Lead the District’s continuing effort to utilize evidence in daily, quarterly, and yearly planning;
- Evaluate and report on District initiatives;
- Monitor the external evaluations of District programs;
- Develop and administer the District-wide Survey;
- Create, maintain, and release the yearly School Progress Report (SPR) and School Profiles;
- Review research and data collection requests from external researchers;
- Evaluate all state and federal grant awards, according to requirements, to determine compliance and effectiveness;
- Provide ongoing technical assistance to schools, as well as regional and central office staff;
- Collaborate with external partners and organizations to strengthen the District’s evaluative capacity;
- Provide principal training on District data initiatives and tools, including QlikBAM dashboards;
- Guide principals and schools in their alignment with state- and federal-mandated requirements;
- Coordinate outreach for evidence-based research and practices; and
- Lead the development of school- and District-level comprehensive plans.